Chris, one thing I would caution is using any terminology from CMA, especially yiquan, at face value.

Yiquan terminology is used quite blandly, really more to describe overt physical forms of exercises. So if yiquan talks about six-directions, it could mean moving in any one of six directions, not all of them at once. And then when direction is talked about, in the context of something like 'li', it is often more expedient to interpret it as 'unity of action' or 'one action' than as 'direction'.

I think what you are talking about here is more closely termed in yiquan and even other CMA, "hun yuan". And even then, the explicit focus is universal (= all-pervading/all-directions), not six and not quantized - the universe is undivided.

So even when six directions is talked of by Morihei Ueshiba did he really mean six, or did he mean all and rather used six as a simplified figurative terminology? And even if he meant six here, did he mean it that six is where you start, and that there was a higher unspoken of universal level, or did he simply not realize to train more than six, or did he think six was all that is necessary despite?

We need to be careful with such comparisons as this. Though there are similarities, there are also noteworthy differences that should be addressed...